Top Artifacts to Equip for Every Role in RAID: Shadow Legends
Figuring out the best artifacts for each of your champions in RAID: Shadow Legends can feel a bit overwhelming, especially as you start collecting more gear and expanding your roster. As someone who has spent way too many hours (and a healthy amount of silver!) swapping artifacts in and out, I’m here to make your path a little easier. This guide will highlight exactly which artifacts you should target for each champion role, sprinkled with a few personal lessons learned from my own journey. Trust me—making the right choices early will save you a ton of resources down the line!
Understanding Artifact Sets: The Basics
Before you start mixing and matching gear, it’s helpful to get familiar with the most important artifact sets. Each set grants unique bonuses, and some are practically must-haves for certain builds. Here are a few common sets you’ll encounter as you run through dungeons and campaign stages:
- Speed Set: +12% speed per 2 pieces. This is crucial for almost every role but especially on support champs and those who need to go first.
- Lifesteal Set: Heals the wearer for 30% of damage dealt. It’s a go-to for campaign farmers and Clan Boss champs.
- Accuracy Set: +40 accuracy for every 2 pieces—key for debuffers.
- Cruel/Savage Set: Designed for damage dealers; helps with ignoring defense and buffing attack.
- Relentless Set: Chance to get an extra turn; fantastic for champions with valuable abilities on their A2 or A3 skills.
This is just a tiny sample—there are many more sets with niche uses, but these form the core building blocks of most successful teams.
Best Artifacts for Damage Dealers (Attackers)
Your damage dealers—the champions responsible for nuking waves and bosses—crave as much offensive power as possible. You want to prioritize sets and substats that ramp up their damage.
- Savage Set: Ignores 25% of enemy defense. Absolutely top-tier in nearly every high-level Arena team and against bosses with thick defenses.
- Cruel Set: Offers 15% attack and 5% defense ignore. Easier to farm from Clan Boss than Savage and stacks well with it.
- Critical Damage Set: Increases crit damage by 20% per 2 pieces. For champions who already have 100% crit rate, this is a direct boost to their output.
- Speed Set: Sometimes your nuker needs just a little more speed to ensure they strike before the enemy.
I remember the first time I swapped my Kael’s Lifesteal set for a full Savage set—suddenly, campaign runs became a blur, and bosses melted. Just make sure not to neglect crit rate and crit damage on gloves and amulet!
| Set Name | Main Bonus | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| Savage | +25% ignore DEF | Maximize burst damage against high-DEF targets |
| Cruel | +15% ATK / +5% ignore DEF | Great for Clan Boss and general PvE/PvP |
| Crit Damage | +20% crit damage | When your crit rate is already at 100% |
Top Artifact Choices for Defensive Champions (Tanks/HP Champs)
Defensive champions are your frontline—the ones you rely on to soak up hits and control the pace of a fight. Their artifact selections should focus on durability and, if possible, supporting their allies.
- Defense Set: Boosts DEF by 15% per set—excellent for scaling their survivability and any damage they might deal from their DEF stat.
- Resilience Set: +10% DEF and +10% HP, which is perfect for general bulk.
- Shield Set: Generates shields for all allies based on the wearer’s HP—amazing for Arena or Faction Wars waves.
- Immortal/Regeneration Sets: Provide HP each turn or constant regeneration, allowing tanks to stay healthy even under pressure.
When I finally geared up my Miscreated Monster with a beefy Shield set, my doom tower progression soared—turns out, keeping everyone topped off with shield procs is a huge deal!
| Set Name | Main Bonus | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| Defense | +15% DEF | Tanks/DEF-based champions |
| Resilience | +10% HP, +10% DEF | Overall durability |
| Shield | Teamwide shield at battle start | Protecting fragile allies, especially in Arena |
| Regeneration | Heals 15% HP per turn | Soloing content or high sustain needed |
Support Champions: Gearing for Utility and Survivability
Support champions drive your team’s utility—healers, cleansers, buffers, and debuffers. The best artifact sets usually enhance their speed, accuracy, and ability to stay alive long enough to help your team.
- Speed Set: The #1 choice for almost every support. Going fast means more heals, buffs, and turn meter.
- Perception Set: +40 accuracy and +5% speed per set, making it ideal for those who need to land debuffs (think control champions or poisoners).
- Immortal Set: +15% HP and a heal every turn helps them shrug off splashes of damage.
Quick story: Early on, I thought building my Apothecary with Lifesteal would make him unkillable, but he just couldn’t keep up in Arena. Once I shifted to full Speed and Perception gear, he was buffing and healing before enemies could even blink. The difference was night and day!
| Set Name | Main Bonus | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | +12% SPD | Go-to set for all supports |
| Perception | +40 Accuracy, +5% SPD | Debuffers or those needing both speed and accuracy |
| Immortal | +15% HP, heals 3% per turn | Healers and sturdy supports |
Debuffers and Crowd Control Specialists: Accuracy is King
For champions who specialize in placing stuns, freezes, poisons, or other debuffs, you need to stack accuracy—otherwise those key moves will constantly fail. Here’s what you want to aim for:
- Accuracy Set: +40 accuracy for every 2 pieces. Combine with Speed for quick, consistent debuffing.
- Perception Set: A hybrid between accuracy and speed—my favorite for most debuffers.
- Stun/Fear Sets: For arena or Faction Wars where landing control is vital, these have a chance to apply crowd control effects.
I learned the hard way when my Warmaiden sat at 80 Accuracy trying to break Arena shields. After a few painful losses, a switch to full Perception made debuffing consistent—and frustration-free!
Healers and Revivers: Surviving to Save the Team
The number one job for your healers and revivers is to stay alive. Speed is important, but don’t ignore their HP or defense base stats. A dead healer helps nobody!
- Speed Set: Ensures heals or revives come up as fast as possible.
- Immortal/Regeneration Sets: Passively restore some HP, keeping your support champions around longer.
- Resilience Set: Increases both HP and DEF—just plain good bulk.
After too many heartbreaks watching my Rector Drath get sniped before she could revive anyone, I now always double-check her HP stats and look for Immortal gear to help her stick around.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Equipping Artifacts
With so many artifact sets, it’s easy to fall into a couple of classic traps. Here are some mistakes I made (and saw friends make on Discord) early in my RAID career:
- Mixing random artifact sets: Combining three different sets just for the highest base stats is rarely optimal. Stick to complete sets for their bonuses unless the substats are exceptional.
- Neglecting speed: Many newer players ignore Speed gear, leading to losing turn order and falling behind in battle. Almost every team needs at least one fast champion!
- Focusing only on set bonuses: Don’t equip a full Speed set if all the pieces have useless main stats (like ATK% boots on a support). Substats and main stats matter just as much as the set effect.
- Ignoring accessories: Amulets, banners, and rings provide huge stat boosts—always check for the best you’ve got!
I once ran a full Crit Rate set on my Apothecary thinking it’d make him heal harder—big mistake, since his healing scales with his maximum HP, not his crits! Read the champion’s kit, and gear accordingly.
Where to Get Top-Tier Artifacts (And Which to Prioritize)
Dungeons like Dragon, Fire Knight, and Spider are your main source of artifact sets. Early on, prioritize farming Dragon’s Lair—it’s where you’ll find Lifesteal, Speed, Accuracy, and other staple sets. As you progress, branch out to Fire Knight for Savage and other specialized gear.
- Dragon’s Lair: Speed, Accuracy, Lifesteal—priority for almost any account.
- Fire Knight’s Castle: Savage, Shield, Crit Damage—high end PvE and PvP gear comes from here.
- Faction Wars/Clan Boss: Unique sets (like Resilience, Perception) and accessories.
Once you start getting 5* and 6* drops, be selective—sell anything with the wrong main stat. Focus on keeping gear that fits a champion’s role, and remember: a few great artifacts beat a hundred “average” ones every time.
Final Tips, Resources, and Next Steps
Mastering artifacts means understanding both sets and substats—and not being afraid to experiment a bit! The best players in RAID spend as much time tinkering with gear as they do running dungeons. If you want to see a ranking of the most effective sets, check out the RAID: Shadow Legends Artifact Tier List on HellHades for up-to-date recommendations and advanced tips.
If you’re looking to put your newly geared champions to the test, I’d recommend reading our guide to Faction Wars and the best champions to use for consistent wins. You’ll get a great sense of how proper artifact choices make a difference across every mode.
Let your artifacts amplify each champion’s strengths—and if you ever feel stuck, it’s almost always worth re-examining your gear setup. Every time I thought my account had hit a wall, a fresh set of Speed boots or a Crit Damage amulet pushed things to a whole new level. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
So, which artifact set has made the biggest difference for you? Keep grinding, keep testing, and watch your team shine.